Sunday Brunch

 Pop-Pop and 'Raine came over for a yummy Sunday brunch.  After brunch, Mr. Potato Head came out to play.  And Elena "chomped".  She was cute that both Pop-Pop and Daddy joined in the fun.  As you might image, Elena has picked up a few sound effects and chomp sounds like she is taking a big bite out of a crisp apple.

Cuddle time with Cooper.  They love each other infinitely.

Potty Chair Update

 So I've been working hard (but not forceful) to get Elena to sit on her potty chair.  She has given me quite the resistance.  Elena is showing all the physical signs of being ready for potty training.  Over the weekend we did "pantie time"--this is a big deal.  She picks out panties to wear and then we try to make it to the potty chair when she needs to go pee.  The trick to getting her used to sitting on the potty chair is to have cartoons on TV.  TV is a miraculous object.

 Of course we have had some accidents but this morning after breakfast Elena said "potty chair".  I asked if she needed to go potty and she said yes.  I zipped her out of her jammies, removed her diaper and sat her on the potty chair.  Ten minutes later I asked her if she made any noise in the potty chair and she said "yes".  I couldn't believe my ears.  I had her stand up and there it was the first full tinkle in the potty chair.  We were so excited.

  Elena thought it was so interesting she squatted next to her chair to check it out.  She pointed and wanted to touch it.  She insisted on carrying the bowl back to the bathroom and of course she wanted to pour the pee into the big toilet and flush.

 After she flushed we watched the water whisk away and said "bye-bye".

It was a great moment and definitely a moment I wanted to extend by taking the week off work to finish training her up.  She is now enrolled in potty class at school.  She and another little girl are training together, so they go to the potties together (there are 2 potties).  With any luck she'll be 80% trained by 2.  Whew, I can't believe she'll be 2 so soon!  Where did all the time go???

Elena Grapefingers

 Well Elena has not watched Edward Scissorhands but seems to have picked up the notion.  Though we discourage playing with food (and that has helped tremendously), Elena still has moments she just can't pass up and this one was too cute not to capture and share.

 She ate most of the grapes and then watched the last couple drop from her fingers.  She was having a blast.

Gardening with Daddy

 Our garden went in a bit late this year.  We have been adjusting to the new work schedule and what seemed like constant sickness.  We are happy to see Spring weather and be healthy again since the end of December.  In the picture above, Elena is sitting on a pillow to help even out the slope.  She loves running up and down the slope.

 Above Elena is pondering where to throw the ball while Daddy works on the garden.

 Elena and I were not much help in the garden but it was fun to see Elena taking interest in the garden.  She is looking forward to picking veggies to eat.  She likes to imitate and she loves digging in the dirt--planting a garden was a perfect activity for her.

Ring Around the Rosie...

Barefoot in Spring

 It's funny being a parent--we think Elena is not just an awesome kid but also brilliant.  She is such a joy to be around and has been talking up a storm.  Her annunciation is getting better every day.  Then in my email inbox I had an update for what to expect of your child at this age--according to the email she is not brilliant as we believe but falls average, right on track with developmental milestones.  It is amazing how smart these little people are!

 Enough with my side bar...down to Elena.  She prefers to be barefoot--and is able to put socks and shoes and take them off.  When she takes off her socks, she stuffs them in her shoes--so cute!  Well today she took of her shoes and wanted to walk on the grass.  This is HUGE for her--she doesn't really like the feeling of grass.  Until today, she strongly disliked the feel of grass so much that if she fell down she would not get herself back up because her hands had to touch the grass.

 But she was quite excited to tromp through the yard barefoot looking for flowers.

And flowers she found.

Outdoor Toy, Finally!

Today is just one of those "feel productive days".  I've been checking Craigslist (an electronic place you can buy/sell used items) for some outdoor play equipment for Elena.  I've been looking since before Christmas.  There was a lot of cute stuff around Christmas but priced way too high.  Finally today I scored a little play climber for Elena.

 Elena's first reaction "Nice!" 

 She loves climbing up to the slide, through the "windows", jumping through the door and hanging from the big purple window...

 And then she decided she would try to walk up the slide.  Ah, my little climber...

Lemons

 After breakfast, Carl and Elena picked a few lemons off our tree.  Elena loves picking the fruit off the trees.  A couple weeks ago, she picked mandarins off our tree with Grandma, Grandpa Pat and Carl.  They also ate a few while picking...so naturally Elena figured it was okay to bite into the lemon:

 She really loves her citrus!

In the next picture she is checking out the "baby lemons".  We have new blooms and a few itty bitty lemon buds beginning to grow.  It's very intriguing.

 Of course when we came in she demanded lemon!  Here she is eating fresh lemon from the tree:

 Trying to get every last drop!!  Silly girl!

 Yummy!!

Breakfast with Pop and Lorraine

This morning we met Pop and Lorraine for a yummy breakfast at a place near our house.  Elena did much better during this meal than she has during the past few.  She was interested in coloring with Lorraine and Daddy and ate some of every one's breakfast. 

 Elena is starting to voice her preference.  She mostly picks out her outfits including socks and in the picture below she is picking out the crayon color she wants to use.  She isn't into tantrums (generally) but has an easy going yet persistent personality right now.

 Breakfast was the start of a wonderful morning--we had perfect weather today!

LA Galaxy in San Diego

The LA Galaxy played a Mexico team right here in San Diego.  Due to an unfortunate injury, Carl's "date" was unable to go to the 7pm game.  Elena and I substituted in, though 7 is her bed time so she was a little sleepy but she went along with the plan and fell asleep on our way home.

We had extremely close seats, 2nd row from the field on David Beckham's side of the field.  Every time he would kick from the corner, the people in the stands would swoon and scurry down to our seats to get the best picture they could--which translates to: it was difficult for us to get a picture.  I'm okay with that, I'm more of a Landon Donovan fan.  It was a good game, we left a little early and it ended in a 2-2 tie.

22 Month Update

Last week Elena turned 22 months--so hard to believe she'll be two in the very near future.  Where does the time go?!!  I haven't done a monthly update in quite awhile, so here is a snap shot of Elena at 22 months.

 Meals: Elena is a foodie, she loves food (except egg) and will eat it all including her veggies though sometimes not her protein (especially chicken, not so much a fan of chicken or eggs--but I still want 2 chickens in a coupe in the backyard).  Overall she eats balanced meals and isn't finicky.  It is really nice to sit down to dinner and we are all eating the same food.  She also eats with a fork and spoon and loves dip--which could be anything like sauce, pickle juice, milk, yogurt, humus, etc.  She has a funny term for 'meatballs' she calls them 'meat bombs' even though she can say ball.  She loves grapes and it is so cute to watch her say it...it sounds more like "brapes".

Sleep: She sleeps 11-12 hours at night and about a 2 hour after lunch nap.  We have been enjoying the long nights of sleep, sometimes I feel like I'm still catching up myself.

Language: Quite a vocabulary.  She uses please and thank you frequently and correctly.  Now we are working on you're welcome.  It seems like she can say almost anything and can be a parrot at any moment.  She also understands what we are saying, she responds appropriately with yes or no...I do miss "ah-huh" with the head nod.  Recently, Carl had friends over playing poker.  It was time for Elena to go to bed, so I asked her "do you want to say good night to the guys?" and she responded, "uh-huh, night guys".  She seems so young to be able to understand so completely what we are saying.  Needless to say she continues to amaze us every day.

Temperament: Generally always happy, seldom cries and if she is hurt she only cries for a couple of minutes--tough cookie.  Cranky when she is tired, hungry or has been sitting too long.

Physically: She is a big kid, wearing a 2t bottom and 3t top.  She is also very agile for her age.  She runs, jumps and gallops around the house.  She also like walking on and jumping on pillows.  She climbs everything regardless if it meant to be climbed on yet she seems to be aware of her own limits and doesn't usually get herself stuck or hurt.  She can climb out of her crib now but most days she content to stay in her crib.

School: What's not to love?  She can wash her hands when ever she wants, get as dirty as she wishes while playing outside, and colors with markers inside.  She is very loved at the school by the teachers, the other kids and their parents.  

Potty training: well this isn't going as well as I had hoped.  I hoped once she was with other kids using the potty she would want to do the same but she doesn't.  She will sometimes alert us that she needs to poop or already pooped but refuses to sit on a potty.  I bought her a small potty to put on the floor and she likes to take it apart and sit in it like it is a bucket fully clothed or in the case of the picture below with a diaper on.  I guess she's just not ready yet.  I'll keep trying every couple of weeks, hopefully she'll be interested soon!

Neighborhood Park

While Donna and Pat were here we walked the dogs over to our neighborhood park.  She loves going there, it's my favorite park too.  The park is set up for 2-5 year olds in one section and 5+ in another so you don't have to worry so much about the big kids running over the little ones.  And believe it or not, this does happen at other parks we visit.  Today it was just us at the park which was so nice.

 Elena didn't want to slow down and take a picture--she was much too busy!

After playing in the park we walked around around to the t-ball fields and saw squirrels basking in the sun.  Elena and Grandma saw a bunny jump into the bushes.  Elena wanted to show me, so she tried pushing the bushes aside as if they were curtains.  Of course the bunny was long gone by then.  We found a hole in the ground, some one's home but Elena didn't want to go near it.  She seems to have a good sense of when to look at critters and when to walk away.

Ocean Beach Dog Park and the Pier

It was probably one of the coldest weekends we have had in awhile, but we braved the chilliness to go down to Ocean Beach with Donna, Pat, and the dogs.  Rain was predicted for the entire weekend and although we had some rain it wasn't as much as anticipated.  The air at the coast was extra crisp, cool--and lovely.

 It's been a while since we've been down to the beach...last trip was some time before Christmas.  And between that time and now, Elena has become very interested in making sand castles, mountains, and caves.  And surprisingly very little was intentionally destroyed.

After a yummy lunch in Ocean Beach, we headed to the Ocean Beach Pier.  The pier is a great place to take a relaxing stroll and look back at the city.  A storm was brewing and the ocean waves were as big as I've ever seen them.  No novice surfers out there; you could feel the pull of the wave while standing on the pier.  Difficult pictures to take--so I've included a couple family shots :)

Zoo Time

We really love going to the zoo and enjoy our family pass.  We went to see the baby hippo recently born at the zoo.  So cute, so big.  A lot of people were standing around so I wasn't able to get a good picture but here are some pictures of us at the zoo:

 

Super Bowl!

We watched the super bowl game despite not being too interested in who won.  Pop came over for a bit of the game and Elena enjoyed reading with him.  Warning to anyone who comes over: Cooper will want your undivided attention and Elena will want you to read books to her.  She loves her books.

Rockin' the Pony

 Elena has begun to express her curiosity about hair and what we do with it.  She has been brushing her own hair for some time but now she also wants to brush my hair.  This morning while she brushed my hair I asked her if she wanted a pony tail like mama's.  Not only did she say yes but she stood still long enough for me to get a hair band in.

 Dancing and just being cute as she enjoys her new pony!

Have a great week!